Those Left Behind
by BlackenedHearts
Summary: Life is a fragile thing, and death comes to all with time. But even as we pass, what becomes of those we leave behind? Major character death warning. Death-fic collection. Chapters are stand-alone. No pairings.
1. Thus Kindly I Scatter

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

The sound of the clock ticking was the only audible sound in the room. None of the room's three occupants stirred as they remained in silence. It had been nearly a week since the final battle. Nearly a week since Ruby had died. The funeral was set for tomorrow. They still couldn't believe it.

Even now the ghost of her presence haunted the room. Forgotten metal scraps from when she last tuned up Crescent Rose. A discarded snack wrapper that had missed the trash bin. A book placed to the side which she had last been reading. All these things would lie where Ruby left them, because now she would never be able to come back for them.

Sitting on a chair in the room with her hands in her lap, Weiss's body was slumped over. She felt drained and empty.

"_Ruby! You don't have to do this!" Weiss cried out as she clutched feebly at the edge of the red cloak from her prone position on the ground. "We're partners aren't we? You don't have to do this alone. We can find another way!" Her words were desperate and pleading._

_Ruby's eyes were determined, but her words came softly. "I'm sorry, but I have to do this Weiss. It has to be me." Gently she tugged her cape out of the tenuous grip of the other girl's pale fingers. "I'm glad you were my partner," Ruby smiled softly at her. "I only wish...we could have had more time."_

_Weiss's eyes never left Ruby's back as they silently begged her to come back. The coldness pervading her body chilled her to the soul._

Blake leaned silently against the wall. Her expression was stone-faced, but her emotions were for once an open book to those who knew her.

_She was slumped against the wall. The pooling crimson around her was a stark contrast to both her pale skin and her dark hair. Her hands clutched at a wound in her side to staunch the blood flow. Blake's injuries were serious, but they weren't fatal._

"_Ruby." A single word was spoken as Blake looked up at the girl walking past her. As their eyes met, a silent conversation was exchanged. She understood why Ruby felt that this was something she must do, but all the same she didn't wish her to go._

_She received a slow shake of the other girl's head as an answer while Ruby opened her lips to speak. "I'm sorry, but I don't think I'll be able to return that book I borrowed from you in person." A weak smile. "I left it on my nightstand, you can just go in and grab it yourself, okay?"_

_Amber eyes dimmed as her body shuddered. Blake looked away, she couldn't bear to watch._

Sitting on the couch with her fists clenched was Yang. The tension in her body was easily visible as her body shook.

"_I won't let you go," said Yang as she stubbornly clung to Ruby. Her body shook, weak with blood loss and her energy spent, but she refused to let go. "You're my little sister, it's my job to protect you. I can't let you do this."_

_They both knew that Yang no longer had the strength left to stop her, but Ruby stood there unmoving within her embrace anyway."You've done a great job over the years, Yang. You were the best sister I could ever ask for," Ruby started off whispering sadly. "But this time it's my turn to protect you." Gently she pried herself out of Yang's grip and began walking away. "Goodbye sis...I'm sorry."_

"_Ruby! No!" Yang shouted as she stumbled forward trying to restrain Ruby. "As your older sister I order you to stay put!" Reaching forward to grab Ruby's shoulder Yang lost her balance as her legs finally gave out. "Please...don't go! Ruby!" she cried out amidst the tears as she was left behind. Try as she might, she had no strength left to follow._

_This was the end, they all knew. There would be no turning back now._

She never did turn back, and Ruby left them all for a final time. She was brilliant, in the end. Her aura blazed bright, it's glow was almost blinding. As usual, Ruby's aura manifested a flurry of rose petals, but this time it was a veritable storm. However, such a display of power would not come without a price.

It is always the brightest stars that burn out the fastest.

With her energy spent, the blaze of her aura dimmed. Ruby had given everything she had of herself, and when none was left, the light in her eyes began to flicker out. When it faded entirely, the light of her soul left with it.

The battle was won and the world saved. But for those who remained, what came next would be the hardest part.

"We should finish preparing for the funeral tomorrow," Weiss whispered softly finally breaking the silence. Despite the low volume of her voice, it was easily heard by the other two girls as the only significant sound in the room aside from the clock. Another moment of silence passed as neither of the others responded. Blake made no indication of having heard her, and Yang merely tightened her fists. The tension in the room was palpable. "They wanted us to speak tomorrow. We still need to prepare our speeches."

Finally there was motion in the room as Yang's head snapped up with an expression of rage on her face. "Ruby's barely been gone a week and you're already getting ready to just bury her and move on?" she snapped angrily.

Weiss turned her face downwards her bangs shadowed her eyes. "The funeral is tomorrow. It is going to happen regardless of how I feel, but nevertheless, we should be there for it." Her response was tight, and her tone clipped. While she felt that Yang was being unfair to her, she understood that the other girl was still dealing with the loss of her sister, and she couldn't blame the blonde for venting her emotions.

"You never even liked her did you?" Yang said as she continued her tirade. "You never got along with her from day one." She was practically hysterical at this point. Yang had been holding in a lot of her emotions over the past week, and it seemed that now it was boiling over with the unfortunate recipient of her ire being Weiss. Eyes teary she continued ranting. "You never could stand that Ruby was the leader," she spat. "I bet you were happy that she died!"

Slap. Weiss stood with her hand outstretched as Yang's face was forcibly turned to the side with a quickly reddening cheek. Blake's gaze was now fixed firmly upon the scene, but she made no motion to intervene. The blonde's face was livid as she turned back to face the smaller girl, but upon seeing Weiss's face she froze. Tear stained Weiss trembled and shook as she slowly lowered her hand.

"You think I didn't care?" Weiss asked with her voice shaking as Yang stared still frozen. "Ruby was my friend. My best friend, and my first friend." Grief over her dead sister or not, Yang had gone too far with her last comment.

"Weiss I-" Yang started off, her expression now ashen before she was cut off as the white haired girl continued without acknowledging her.

"She was my partner for almost four years," Weiss sobbed. "She meant everything to me. How- how...what am I supposed to do without her?" As her knees gave out, Yang moved in to support her. "...What is there left to live for?"

Finally Blake moved from her position on the sidelines. Sweeping in she pulled the two crying girls into her arms. "Shhh, shhh," she whispered softly trying to calm the two down. "We're still here, you still have us. There are still three of us left, and Ruby," Blake's voice warbled a little upon the name of their departed friend but she continued on, "Ruby wouldn't have wanted us to be sad. She gave her life to protect us, and she wouldn't have wanted us to fall apart." She wasn't quite sure who she was trying to reassure, Weiss, Yang, or herself.

Even as Blake tried her best to console her crying teammates she felt the sting of tears in her own eyes. There were three of them still here, yes, but all that served to do was remind them that it should be four of them here in this embrace. She would do her best to stay strong and make sure that the three of them would remain together, but that didn't change the fact that Team RWBY would never be whole again.

* * *

The funeral ceremony was a grand affair. Professor Ozpin had insisted on holding it at Beacon, a final farewell fit for a hero. None of them had a problem with it, having the staff from the academy taking care of the funeral arrangements was better than having to do it themselves. Besides, it was always Ruby's dream to be acknowledged as a great huntress. Nobody gathered here today would ever forget her.

They were seated outside in one of Beacon's many large courtyards. The sun shone down upon them this day, mocking in it's presence over such an occasion which cast clouds in the hearts of many. Numerous rows of assembled students and staff members were seated solemnly as a sea of black. Although it was a very publicized event, the funeral of the greatest hero in recent memory, Ozpin had been adamant about keeping it restricted to members of the academy. That at least they found themselves grateful for.

In her time at Beacon, Ruby had become a much beloved figure among the students and professors. She was always friendly to everybody, and as such had befriended many of their peers. Ruby had a tendency to frustrate the teachers, but she still managed to worm her way into their good graces regardless. While today was a solemn occasion for those here now, it was a different sort of thing for the rest of the world.

The people throughout the four kingdoms of Vytal were celebrating the fall of the Grimm and the dark forces behind them. While they mourned for the fallen hero that paid for their peace with her life, it was the detached sort of sadness for someone they had never known that had died in an event they could in no way relate to. The outcome of the situation struck people as both heroic as well as rather tragic in a fantastic fairy tale sort of way. For those here though, the tragedy was all too real.

The three of them as Ruby's team were seated in one of the front rows. They sat silently with their heads bowed as others such as some of the professors went up and gave their final words for their fallen teammate. As the speeches were given, they drifted in and out, too stricken by their grief and the thoughts of their own upcoming final words to pay attention. Eventually though, it came time for their turn, and Weiss was the first one to go up.

Standing there at the front of the rows of people Weiss just felt drained. The past week had been very trying for them all, and dealing with Ruby's death had taken everything out of her. Nevertheless, she knew that it would be a miracle if she made it out of this without crying again. Closing her eyes for a moment she steeled herself in preparation to begin speaking. Weiss knew that she couldn't turn around no matter what. The funeral was open casket, but there was no way she would be able to keep herself together if her gaze were to fall upon the unnaturally still form of her deceased partner.

"Ruby...was many things to many people," Weiss started off trying to keep her voice strong. Steeling her gaze Weiss drew in a shaky breath as she tried to look directly into the crowd. "But to me, the most important thing was that she was my friend." It was not something she often verbalized, but it was something she really did believe.

"Again, Ruby was also friends to a great many people. But she always had a way of making everyone feel special," she said looking out into the crowd as she received a few minute nods. "She was actually the first friend I ever had," she admitted. "And while I may not have been the most receptive in the beginning, I will never regret having her as my partner, and my greatest friend." Weiss looked back down sadly. "...I wasn't always the best friend in return to her. I know that I can be difficult, and I often pushed her away." Her voice began to break as she held back the tears. "But she never left my side. Ruby never stopped wanting to be my friend." She sniffled as she raised a hand to muffle a sob. "I just- I just wish that she were still here."

As she began to cry again, Weiss rushed off the stage so as not to be seen breaking down in front of everyone. While she would never regret being Ruby's friend, she did regret never having told any of this to her. She hadn't always gotten along with the other girl, but she had eventually come to treasure their friendship and hold it close to her heart. Weiss just wished that she had been half as good a friend as Ruby had. That she had made sure that the other girl had known how much she cared about her.

After Weiss, Blake was next up to speak. Passing by the white haired girl she gave her a comforting squeeze on the shoulder as she walked by. Calmly she faced the crowd in front of her. She had always had a strong grip on her emotions, she had to. Blake was no stranger to loss either. She was certain that would be able to keep herself together long enough for this at least.

"Ruby was a very special person. As you all well know she was very talented, determined, and strong." These were things that many of the people before her had already said, but that made them no less true. As the world's newest and greatest martyr and hero, those traits of hers were no doubt known by everyone throughout all of Vale if not the rest of Vytal by now. Ruby always wanted to be huntress, it was only right for her success to be acknowledged at the end of her journey.

"But aside from her abilities as a huntress, she was also infinitely kind, caring, forgiving, and accepting." Those qualities of hers however were things that held special and personal significance to Blake. "...There are things about me, things about my past, many of which I am not proud of. But Ruby never cared, as far as she was concerned, I was her friend and that was good enough." Blake's heart was heavy as she spoke, but this was important. "She was always there to lend a hand to anybody in need, or an ear to anyone that needed to be heard." The next words out her mouth felt oddly, painfully final. "The world will never forget the huntress Ruby Rose for what she has done, but for those of here, we should always remember that she was more than that. Ruby was a person, a wonderful young woman cut short before her time, and we should remember her for what she was in life, not just how she died."

Departing the stage Blake saw more than a few wet eyes amongst the sea of faces. She felt the urge to curl up somewhere herself and weep, but she had to stay strong right now for her team. If Weiss were to be considered distraught, still crying to the side, then seeing Yang as she approached now the golden haired girl could only be considered a barely contained wreck. She grasped her partner's arm as they passed each other, but Yang continued on, brushing her off without even noticing her at all.

Standing on stage Yang was unable to look up from the ground at all as she stood in silence. Anybody could tell that she was barely keeping it together as it was, but she had forced herself to come. The silence stretched from seconds into a minute or two, but nobody had the heart to prompt her. Eventually though, she started of her own initiative.

"Ruby...was my sister," Yang whispered out in a fragile tone. It was uncharacteristically quiet from the normally brash and outspoken young woman, but it carried well enough in the quiet crowd. "We weren't...we weren't blood related as many of you may well know, but I loved her all the same."

Another moment of silence occurred as Yang strode towards the opened casket causing people to begin shifting awkwardly in their seats again as Yang continued. "I still remember when she first came to our home." Her body was visibly shaking now as her hands clutched at the sides of her black dress. "She was so quiet, so withdrawn at first." The tears leaked down her face as a hand began reaching towards the coffin. "But she got better. Ruby...Ruby, my little sister, was always so happy, so bright." Lovingly she stroked the side of Ruby's cheek, the body obviously unresponsive to her touch. "She was so excitable, she had so much energy."

Breaking down now Yang sobbed. "Why...why do you lie there so still now Ruby?" she questioned the corpse, seemingly having forgotten everybody else around her. "This, this isn't right. It shouldn't be like this, not you, not you." Sinking to her knees now Yang buried her face in her hands as she cried. Springing from their seats, Blake and Weiss began to make their way to her side as fast as they could.

"I failed you," Yang croaked out. Grasping the girl's shoulders her two teammates tried to lead her to the side. "It's not fair! She was my little sister, It should have been me!" she cried out desperately as she struggled against the hold the other two girls had on her. Very quickly though she lost the strength to struggle as she whispered out once more, "It's not fair...all she ever wanted to do was help people. It should have been me instead..."

Carefully Weiss and Blake managed to pull Yang away from the coffin and Ruby's body. They led her to the side, away from the ceremony and prying eyes. The crowd watched on silently at the spectacle as Yang was pulled away. Still though, nobody could blame them for their sadness on this occasion. Together the three would weep in memory of their lost fourth as the funeral continued on without them.

Even as the rest of Vytal celebrated the dawn of a bright new era, for those here today, all today managed to be was a concrete symbol of darker days. It gave a sense of finality, of confirmation of what had happened. For though Ruby may have given them all a future, it was a future without her in it.

* * *

**Author's Note**

**Here it finally is, first chapter of the death-fic. Sorry. Well no, that's a lie, I'm not sorry. Not sorry at all. I'm not super sure why I wrote this, it might just be because I'm a terrible person. Kill one of the RWBY girls, make the rest cry, and make readers sad. Well, whatever reason I did it for, gotta finish killing the rest. I hope this story made your day taste like sadness.**

**I'm a little worried though that I may be a little (or a lot) heavy handed in my writing with the crying and emotions and stuff. Sort of like bludgeoning the readers with a bat made of tears. Still, I don't really see them _not_ crying if one of them were to die after being teammates for a while, especially Yang and Ruby as sisters, as well as both pairs of partners. Besides, it _is_ a funeral, and funerals for friends that die young way before their time are sad as shit, even if they aren't a close friend, and in this case, they are.**

**Weiss gets to die in the next chapter. And then Blake. And then Yang. All four are entirely unrelated stories though. That means the other three girls will be alive to properly mourn and angst for each of them. Therefore Ruby will be alive in the story next chapter when Weiss dies. Everybody gets a different death though, so don't worry about me just writing the same thing four times.**

**No pairings in this because a significant other would probably steal the scene. No intended pairings anyway, you could probably squint.**

**I'm gonna work on chapter two of Beauty and the Beast before the next chapter of this most likely. Then I will get back to killing Weiss.**

**EDIT (16/09/13): Touched up the story, mostly the funeral as it was originally a bit rushed out the door so that I could go to sleep. Typos, missing words, a bit of sentence restructuring and a few small additions.**


	2. White is Cold

**Author's Note**

**Back again with more death in chapter 2! Chapter 1 got such a great response. Highest ratio of reviews to other stats (views, favourites, alerts) I've seen on any of my stories. I guess you're more likely to respond when I actually manage to make you cry rather than when I make people happy? I only got one review telling me to go to hell too, I'm surprised.**

**This fandom has been getting too happy again lately, it needs more angst. If I'm going to hell, I'm dragging you all down with me on this angst train into the realm of pain and suffering. Seriously, this chapter had better make you all cry again. I enjoy your tears. (I am a terrible person.)**

**Shout out to weissrabbit on tumblr. It made my day when I saw the first chapter mentioned on her blog. Go check out some of her RWBY art. (Enjoy Weiss dying and the others suffering =D)**

**For those who missed the memo, Ruby is alive again since each chapter is unrelated and thus this has no connection to the first chapter, but now Weiss is going to die. I figure Ruby would probably end up being the most likely to miss Weiss the most if she died, so I need her to be alive so I can twist the knife.**

* * *

They should have seen the signs. It was not unusual for Weiss to be sick, it seemed that she came down with something every other month. Still though, she always waved it off and it would pass by quickly enough. They had simply grown used to it.

It had started innocently enough. A cough here and there. Early to bed, late to rise. The usual things that happened when Weiss came down with something again. It had grown rather more severe than usual, but the heiress had brushed off their concerns as usual, telling them not to worry. If anything, she just pushed herself harder. Not wanting to raise her ire any more than necessary they had eventually complied and stopped pestering her.

Today though, Weiss had suddenly collapsed during team combat practice. When they had failed to rouse her back to consciousness, Yang had picked up the petite girl and rushed towards the hospital wing with Ruby dogging her steps the entire way. Blake had taken a second longer to pick up the forgotten Myrtenaster before following after them. While they were obviously concerned, the sheer level of panic the nurse showed was rather alarming. Amidst the flurry of action she took concerning Weiss's condition she let slip something to them that they had not previously known.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Blake asked softly. The question was simple, but there was a wealth of meaning behind it.

"Because it wasn't any of your business," replied Weiss. She was now lying in the hospital wing bed Yang had initially deposited her in. Although she was still a little groggy, she had woken up a few minutes ago after about an hour of waiting.

"Wasn't any of our business?" Yang hissed her eyes temporarily flashing red. "How is it not our business that our teammate is _sick_ and _dying_?" Her words were punctuated by pronounced flinches from Ruby. Anger was often one of the first emotions that came to the golden haired girl when it came to things that she did not like. She was not angry at Weiss specifically so much as she was just pissed at the situation, but the rage she felt still managed to leak into her voice.

Weiss scoffed. "Dying? Don't be so dramatic. I'm fine, I assure you that I will be out of here within a week." Despite her words, she did not sound very convincing with how pale she was and the shallowness of her speech and breath. Her inability to look Yang in the eye did not help either.

Her teammates however, were not so convinced. "But you are sick," Blake affirmed. "I don't know much about this condition, but I do know that it is serious. Hardly the kind of thing you should have been waving off all this time." Amber eyes narrowed at Weiss. "How long? How did this even happen?"

The white haired girl looked away as one of her hands grasped at her opposite arm uncomfortably. Weiss obviously was not eager to broach this topic, but she could hardly escape from her teammates given her current situation. "...It's hereditary. From my mother," she admitted eventually, still unable to meet anyone's eyes.

"Your mother who isn't around anymore because of it," Yang said in a more accusatory tone than initially intended. Closing her eyes she let out a shaky breath as the tension slowly seeped from her body. When she opened her eyes again they were a soft purple once more as she spoke softly. "Weiss. You're our friend. We worry about you is all, even if you don't want us to. The nurse said you shouldn't be overexerting yourself, but..." Yang trailed off as she could not quite bring herself to complete the thought.

On the other hand, Blake seemed to have no such problems approaching the subject. "But being a huntress is almost by definition a job that requires great physical exertion." Her eyes narrowed. "Your fighting style and weapon greatly supplements physical ability with aura and dust usage. Specifically to make up for this. But even those take a toll on your body." Blake paused for a moment as she closed her eyes for a second in contemplation. It was visibly evident that she had struck a sore point as Weiss's grip visibly tightened on the bed sheets. "You're killing yourself. Maybe you should-"

"Don't. You. Dare," Weiss grounded out between clenched teeth.

Yang moved closer to the bed, positioning herself between the two. "Weiss, please. We're just-"

"No!" came the angry shout from Weiss whose arms were now shaking from how tightly her fists were clenched. "I am a huntress! A fighter! I refuse to stop. I am not so frail as to go back to being just a pretty palace doll." Her voice was becoming more choked at this point as her shoulders now trembled with restrained tears rather than her previous rage. "I have always known that my time was short...when I go, I want my life to have had some meaning." Weiss was almost entirely hunched over at this point, her bangs covering her face from view. "I won't..." The drop of the first tear was easily seen though when it stained into the blanket. "You're supposed to be my teammates...you're not..."

Ruby who had remained silent until now finally moved towards the now crying girl and pulled her into a hug. Weiss was visibly stunned as she froze in the embrace, but she made no action to move away.

Ruby's face was buried into Weiss's shoulder, right next to her ear when she started speaking. "Weiss. You are my teammate. My best teammate, right?" the red clad girl asked, her voice trying to stay strong despite the warbles in it. "And how could you be my best teammate if you weren't a huntress?" As Ruby pulled back from the other girl Weiss's tear stained eyes dutifully followed after her face. "You're going to get better," she stated firmly. "We are teammates, and partners. You will become the best huntress ever, okay? I will make sure of it. And I'll be there with you the whole time." Grasping Weiss's shoulders she looked into her eyes and beamed at her, smiling as brightly as she could.

Weiss stared transfixed for a moment as her lips trembled. "Ruby, I...I." Her body shook as she failed to get out any words. Eventually with a strangled cry she lunged forward, wrapping her arms around Ruby as she began to sob into her shoulder.

Smiling sadly Ruby gently held Weiss as she cried. Blake and Yang approached again, seating themselves on the bed on either side of the two. "Everything will be okay Weiss. We're here for you. I promise."

* * *

Looking up from her book Blake found that Weiss had fallen asleep again, the other girl still loosely holding her own book in a pale hand. It had been nearly a week since that day, and it seemed that Weiss would be wrong about her assertion of getting out of the hospital wing before then.

They all made sure to visit her every day, often multiple times. It was not exactly hard given that it was still on campus. Often the rest of Team RWBY would come together as group to keep Weiss company, and at other times they would drift in and out individually. The members of Team JNPR even dropped by a few times with well wishes.

Blake often brought a book just to read when she was here. She would often bring a book for her ailing teammate as well. Neither of the two had ever had much to converse about with each other, but they did enjoy each other's company. Sometimes some peace and quiet with someone was a nice contrast to the more boisterous personalities of Yang and Ruby.

It seemed more and more often recently though, that Weiss spent more time asleep. It was rather worrying. She hadn't been getting better, if anything, she was getting worse. Blake had seen the rising levels of tension in the hospital wing staff, as well as heard the whispers. There was talk of transferring the Schnee heiress to the nearby hospital soon for more advanced care.

She had been doing some research into the disease Weiss had, and the prospects were grim. It was a rare autoimmune disorder, and as the afflicted girl had said, it was hereditary. Typically the genes required for it to develop were recessive, but as a bad result of the genetic lottery, Weiss had gotten unlucky. So too had her mother apparently. From what she had found, it was a miracle that the elder Mrs. Schnee had even managed to survive long enough to manage to have a child.

Autoimmune disorders, as they sound, are diseases involving the malfunction of the body's own immune system. For whatever reason the body's defences fails to recognize it's own cells and will attack itself instead. This was what was now threatening her teammate's life. Come to think of it, Blake had heard before of other afflictions where the body killed off pigmentation. This condition might actually be the reason for Weiss's unusually pale skin and hair colour, though that was hardly important right now.

For this particular disease, most of the time it would just lay mostly in the background, simply inhibiting physical performance. At other times though, particularly in times of physical stress, it flared up casing "attacks" like Weiss's occasional bouts of illness which was actually her own immune system actively attacking her own body. Sometimes these attacks could get bad, case in point right now. Any one of these attacks could potentially get bad enough to be fatal. There was no cure. It was only a matter of time.

With how frail Weiss's body should have been, it was amazing that she had managed to come as far as she had as a huntress. As Blake had noted earlier, she used a lot of aura and dust effects to make up for her weaker body. Now that she thought of it, Weiss's use of aura must have been a very careful balancing act.

The healing properties of aura as well as it's effects of reinforcing the body were probably the only reasons why she even managed to do what she could physically. However, that also meant that each time she drew on her aura for combat purposes, it would also draw it away from keeping her body from shutting itself down. Thus this lead to her dependency on Myrtenaster's abilities and dust, which luckily she had great access to as the Schnee heiress. But even that held drawbacks as the manipulation of dust required the use of aura.

Blake was familiar with loss, with death. Until Team RWBY, she had never had much to live for. They were her friends, her family. Blake didn't have to watch Weiss die. She did not wish to have to go back to the way her life was before.

* * *

"Hey Weiss! How are you today?" Yang asked excitedly as she entered the room. No response. "It's been the same old same old for the rest of us."

Of course again she still received no response. It only made sense, as Weiss was not even conscious at the moment. Typically though, even when the other girl actually was awake, Yang still did most of the talking anyway. Her being asleep actually didn't make too large of a difference in the way things went. There was just a lot less eye rolling and a few less sarcastic remarks.

"We had class with Professor Port again today. Dietary habits of the Nevermore. Ugh, what a snooze. I don't know why you like his class so much." Yang paused as if waiting for a reply once again, though of course there would be none.

This type of scene was sadly becoming more and more common. Weiss had been transferred from Beacon's hospital wing to the Central Vale Memorial Hospital a couple of weeks ago now. At first they had been optimistic, perhaps with the hospital's resources their friend might recover. They couldn't visit quite as often as they were able to when she was still on campus, but they all still made sure to visit at least once a day. Team JNPR would also usually come by at least once a week. They had seen some other unfamiliar people come by, associates of the Schnee Company apparently. None of them seemed to actually know Weiss very well, if at all.

"You should've been there today, we went to go watch Team JNPR practice. Pyrrha and Jaune were having a spar, and it was actually pretty impressive. Jaune still lost of course, one on one has never been his strong suit, but he sure has gotten a lot better over the years hasn't he?"

During Yang's visits, she rather enjoyed talking the infirm girl's ear off. They had always had a bit of a prickly relationship with Yang always ribbing Weiss in some way which was often followed by a scathing retort of some sort. These days it tended to just be all in good fun as opposed to how it was originally. Coming to visit Weiss she would just tell them every inane detail of her day, until the white haired girl would be annoyed enough to tell her to shut up and act like she didn't care. At least Yang was pretty sure that she was just acting. Probably. It was a nice dose of normality against the abnormal backdrop of the hospital room.

"I'm sure she'll tell you herself at some point, but Ruby got an A on the last test in Advanced Dust Manipulation. I know how much you had to help her in that class. She's really had to step it up without you."

They weren't expecting a cure or anything, but they had hoped that maybe things could at least go back to the way things were. They were wrong. Weiss's already poor health had only declined further with time. These days it seemed like she barely spent more than an hour or two awake at all in a day, and it seemed like that period of wakefulness would not coincide with Yang's visit today. Still, that didn't stop her from conversing with Weiss anyway.

"You know that restaurant that was under construction for the longest time two blocks over? It finally opened the other week and we went last night. It was pretty nice, we should all go together when you get better."

When they had first confronted her in the hospital wing about her illness, Yang had wanted to say something, but had been unable to. Something Blake had taken the initiative to approach instead until Weiss interrupted her. Perhaps she should stop being a huntress. Yang had been reluctant to say it because she knew that being a huntress was important to the other girl. She could empathize, being a huntress was a very important part of herself as well. But if Weiss weren't a huntress...maybe at least then she wouldn't be like this now. Lying in a hospital, wasting away.

Yang glanced at the clock next to the bed. "Ah...I must have lost track of time." Indeed it was almost seven at this point, and the sun was starting to set. Standing up from her chair she moved to leave. "I'll be back to see you tomorrow. Classes let out early so we should all be able to make it as a group." Yang paused in the doorway just before she exited. "Weiss...get better soon. We miss you." She was greeted only by silence.

The moment she left the room, the smile she had plastered on her face immediately slipped off as her body visibly sagged. There was no real reason for it, not when there was nobody in there to see it. But a smile made things feel a little better than they actually were, like things weren't quite so bad. The moment Weiss was out of sight though, Yang just couldn't find the energy to keep faking like everything was okay anymore.

* * *

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

The sound of the heart monitor was one of the few sounds indicating that there was anyone present in the room at all. Ruby sat silently at the bedside as she watched Weiss sleep. There were so many machines now.

Ruby wasn't sure how long it had been since Weiss first came here, but it felt like a lifetime. It had been nearly a week since the last time she had seen her awake, and she had not been particularly lucid at the time from all the drugs being pumped into her body keeping her alive. Among all the equipment here now included a feeding tube since the bedridden girl was not awake often enough to eat very often. She was told that a ventilator of some sort may be needed soon, when Weiss's already shallow breathing grew worse.

She was so pale, so still, and so quiet. It wasn't right seeing her like this. Ruby missed talking with her, studying with her, or sparring with her. She even missed arguing with Weiss. At this point she would be ecstatic just to have Weiss yelling at her for something. Ruby missed her friend.

They had all wished for her to get better of course. Hope against hope they had waited for her to get better, but she hadn't. It had taken a long time for her to face the facts, even after the doctors told her flat out. She had screamed, she had cried, pleaded and denied. But none of that changed anything. Weiss was going to die.

Team RWBY continued to visit Weiss every day. It was rare to actually have the chance to speak with her, and rarer still for her to be able to hold a coherent conversation. The visits were actually quite depressing, but they wanted to be there with her for what little time she had left. Their friends in Team JNPR still came by every now and then, but no other visitors seemed to come these days. Not even family members. Ruby came by faithfully every day, because she didn't want Weiss to have to be alone when she passes.

Abruptly, the sound of a sudden hacking cough drew Ruby from her grim thoughts.

"Weiss!" Leaping out of her seat Ruby hurried towards her teammate who was now struggling to sit up amidst trying to regain control of her laboured breathing between coughs. Wrapping an arm around Weiss's back Ruby carefully supported her weight. "Please lie back down, you shouldn't try to sit up." Thankfully she complied, and Ruby was able to help lay her back down onto the bed.

Blearily Weiss opened her eyes, a dull blue gazing unfocused towards Ruby. "Who...?" The confusion readily apparent in her voice indicated that she was not quite all there.

Ruby tried to ignore the pang she felt in her heart from Weiss's apparent lack of recognition. This wasn't the first time it had happened, she usually remembered with a gentle reminder. "It's me, Ruby. Your friend, remember?"

"Ru...by?" Weiss repeated slowly as if testing the name on her tongue. "My friend...that's right." This statement seemed to fill her with a sense of delight as she mused over it.

"Yeah, we're friends," Ruby whispered softly to Weiss as she tried to blink back the tears. "How are you feeling?"

"Tired...cold..." murmured Weiss as she settled back into the bed.

Ruby's lips quivered but she tried to keep her voice steady. "Maybe you should go back to sleep. You should rest and gather your strength. I'm sure you'll feel better in the morning." Reaching under the blankets she grasped Weiss's hand between her own feeling only a small twinge of movement in response. It really was quite cold. "I'm here. Just sleep."

Closing her eyes Weiss let out a soft breath. "Could you sing to me?"

Taken aback by the request Ruby stuttered out her agreement. "Sing? I-I...yeah, sure." She took a moment to think about it for a moment before continuing. "This is part of a lullaby that Yang used to sing to me sometimes when I was younger."

_"____Don't you worry about the dark.__"_

She started off hesitantly, closing her eyes and trying to keep her mind on the song. Weiss managed to relax almost instantly as the words washed over her.

_"____I will light up the night, with the love in my heart.__"_

Ruby was sure that she must have sounded terrible, the words kept stuttering as her voice was shaking. It seemed that Weiss though had already been lulled back to sleep.

_"____I will burn like the sun, I will keep you safe and warm__"_

Ruby stopped singing suddenly as she hiccupped with tears streaming down her cheeks.

"It's not fair...why does this have to happen?" Ruby whispered brokenly to herself. "Why Weiss? Why does it have to be her?" The only answer she would receive was the steady sounds from the machines around her. Beep. Beep.

Eventually Ruby would fall asleep at Weiss's side soon after, too emotionally and physically exhausted to leave. Yang who dropped by later that night would pick her up to bring her back to Beacon.

Beep. Beep.

Each day they would return. Each day Weiss would only get worse.

Beep. Beep.

They weren't sure whether it was worse when she was lucid, or when she was a little out of it. Whether one was worse or not, both managed to be heartbreaking.

Beep. Beep. Beeeeeee-

In the end, the doctors were right. Weiss Schnee did not last the week. She would pass away peacefully alone in the middle of the night.

* * *

Yang never liked funerals. It had been a long time since she had last attended one, it was for a family member in an unfortunate accident when was younger.

The funeral arrangements were of course taken care of by Weiss's family and the Schnee Dust Company. It was large and extravagant, held at a private villa of the Schnee family. All sorts of bigwigs and important people were attending, most of whom had never even spoken to Weiss. The remaining members of Team RWBY had been invited as a gesture of courtesy, but they felt largely out of place amongst the other guests as their current seats were the middle of the rows surrounding them with unfamiliar people.

Funerals were sad affairs, obviously. Yang had never dealt with sadness very well. She had always had a very fiery personality, always burning with passion in whatever she did. Her normally chipper personality was far from appropriate for how she was currently feeling though. Instead, she channelled her sadness into anger, another emotion quite familiar to her.

She was angry that Weiss had never told them. They were friends weren't they? She should have been able to trust them, to confide in them. Instead they had to find out from the nurse when it finally put her in the hospital and they had to watch her die. But that wasn't fair. Weiss had her reasons she was sure, and blaming the victim never helped.

She was angry at herself. Why didn't she notice earlier? She should have seen it, seen that something was wrong with Weiss, that she wasn't well. Yang wondered if maybe she could have done something. But really, what could she have done?

She was angry at all those here at the funeral. She had seen some of them before, at the hospital. Most of them were business associates of the Schnee Company, and visited more out of a sense of polite obligation than any actual concern. None of them had ever come more than once. But that wasn't fair either. It's not like what happened was actually any of their faults.

She was angry at Weiss's father. At the Beacon staff. At the disease, even at life itself. But in the end, she just couldn't manage to hold onto that rage for very long before the cold grip of despair reasserted itself.

The ceremony was almost over now. It had not lasted very long, and Yang hadn't been paying much attention either, lost to her own thoughts and grief. There were not very many speakers, as not many people actually knew Weiss very well. Team RWBY had not been asked to speak, which Yang was secretly glad for. She wasn't sure how well she would have been able to hold herself together, and from Ruby's shaking next to her she knew definitively that her little sister would have broken down for sure. Blake was the only one of them that might have managed. The only person from Beacon that had been given a chance to speak was Professor Ozpin, not that Yang had been listening.

Everyone was filing out of the aisles now. They would walk towards the coffin to pay their final respects before leaving. There were enough people that it took at least ten or twenty minutes before their row got to leave.

She was finally able to get one final glimpse of Weiss. The last time in her life she would ever see her friend. Lying there in that coffin it seemed that she had been all dolled up prior. A beautiful dress, fancy hair. They even applied enough make up to cover up her scar. She literally looked like a doll, so pristine, so peaceful, so perfect. Yang was sure that Weiss would have hated it.

With a hand on each of Ruby's shoulders Yang carefully escorted her away before she had the chance to break down and make a scene. She heard Blake mumble something to her before heading off somewhere. It didn't really matter, Blake could take care of herself. Right now Ruby was the one who needed her most.

* * *

As a guest attending the funeral nobody questioned her as she moved through the building, unable to single her out among the multitude of guests. Blake was essentially given free reign to most of the villa. Once upon a time she would have killed for the opportunity to have such access to the Schnee property. Today though, there was only one location she was interested in right now.

Stepping into the darkened private study Blake closed the door behind her. Facing her across the desk was the back of a swivel chair, but she could just manage to make out parts of a seated human silhouette.

"You know, it was not that long ago where I dearly wished for just a couple of minutes alone with you in a dark secluded room with no witnesses around Mr Schnee." The tone of her voice made it clear that it was more along the lines of an implied threat than any sort of proposition. Despite that, the man made no move from his position. "You have done a lot of terrible things to a lot of people. Made a lot of enemies. But I'm not here today about any of that. I'm here about Weiss."

Still she received no response. Blake frowned, but continued onward. "Since long before I met her, I have hated the Schnee name. I have hated you, your company, and everything you've built upon the backs of others." She saw the silhouette move slightly, but still no sound came from him. "But Weiss was different from what I expected of your heir. She became my friend. And she always defended you, defended the company."

Blake paused for a minute, waiting for Mr. Schnee to say something. Anything. When still she received no answer she simply continued speaking what she came here to say. "She loved you, I know. You were her father. I thought that perhaps for all your other faults, maybe you were capable of being a decent human being in at least one aspect. But never once did I ever see you reciprocate anything of the sort to her. You never even visited once while she was in the hospital." Even Team CRDL had come by at least once and managed to keep the visit polite.

Again another moment of silence passed as Weiss's father chose not to partake in his half of the conversation. "Weiss never said anything, but in retrospect the signs were obvious. She always pushed herself so hard trying to meet some set of expectations, but it was never good enough. She was always so guarded, so distrusting, but for those she called her friends she clung to desperately." Blake stared at the back of the chair, seeing and hearing movement but still receiving no response. "I don't know what you did to her, or what you failed to do, but your failure as a parent and as a human being is complete now. She's dead and gone."

Turning to leave Blake opened the door with a sigh. She wasn't entirely sure why she had come here, to rebuke one of the most powerful men in Vale. Whatever reason it was, she hadn't gotten what she wanted. "Still nothing to say?" She was just disappointed. "I hope you're happy with yourself." Blake closed the door behind her on a silent room.

* * *

Ruby really just wanted to curl up somewhere dark and cry right now. She didn't want to have to come back out for a long long time. Feeling Yang's arms around her and knowing that there were people around were the only reasons why she wasn't doing so right now.

Through the haze of misery clouding her head Ruby just barely managed to hear Yang's voice pierce through. "Come on Ruby, you should sit down for now. We still have another hour before we have to meet with Professor Ozpin for our ride back." Mind numb she sat down obediently on the bench Yang led her to.

Yang had led the two of the into a rather secluded side area of the villa. It was a garden of sorts, with plenty of trees, flowers, and carefully tended to foliage. It must have taken a number of gardeners to keep this place in such good shape. The most important thing about the location right now was that it was currently empty except for them.

"It's okay Ruby. It'll be okay," said Yang as she awkwardly patted Ruby on the back.

"It's not gonna be okay and you know it," Ruby sniffed. "Weiss is gone and she's never coming back. That'll never be okay."

Sensing that useless reassuring platitudes that even she herself didn't believe in were going to get nowhere with Ruby, Yang decided on a different approach. Wrapping her arms around Ruby's shoulders she cradled the smaller girl's head in the brook of her neck. "Alright then sis," she murmured. "Just let it all out."

Ruby sniffled again. "Weiss was my friend. My teammate," she started off in a hoarse voice. "I'm supposed to be the leader. Making sure my teammates are okay is supposed to be my job." She hiccupped. "I was her best friend. And I failed her."

"It wasn't your fault Ruby," Yang murmured softly while stroking her hair. "You didn't make her sick. You couldn't have cured her. It's not your fault."

Crying out Ruby pushed herself away from her sister, shakily . "But that's just it! I couldn't do anything!" she screamed out hysterically with tears streaming down her face. "I promised myself that I would never let anybody I cared about die again! I trained! I grew strong!" Ruby gestured wildly in the air, punctuating each statement with a swing of her arms. "Everything I did was so that I could protect the people I care about." Yang watched her sadly in silence as tears of her own began to leak from the corners of her eyes.

Once more the energy left Ruby's body as she sagged in on herself. "But there was nothing to fight. Nothing I could do. In the end, I was just useless again." Silver eyes were raw and red, as was the rest of her face from the sheer volume of tears coming out. Ruby sank to her knees as her voice lowered to a whisper. "I thought I had changed, but I was wrong. I couldn't do anything other than watch as Weiss died slowly in front of me."

Yang walked forward towards Ruby as the smaller girl finally broke down completely. Curled into a ball she sobbed painfully, her body shuddering with each breath. The elder sister didn't say a word, just holding Ruby in her arms as she let it all out.

* * *

Life went on without Weiss Schnee.

Her death got some coverage in the media across Vale for a few days afterwards as she was the heiress to a very important company. Her status as a huntress in training oddly enough barely seemed to merit more than a passing mention in most cases.

Several weeks later though, another news piece appeared launching Weiss's death back into the public eye. Her father had seemingly passed over reigns of the company to the board of directors and sold off most of his assets and properties. One of the most influential men in Vale disappeared entirely off the grid. The most obvious reason was generally agreed to be the death of his only child, but wild speculation ensued about where he had gone. Some thought it may have been suicide.

Privately Weiss's friends had a brief moment of vindictive pleasure that perhaps he had finally been hit by the guilt of how he had treated his daughter. It only lasted a moment though. No amount of petty revenge was going to bring their friend back.

Life went on. Classes stayed in session, and people's lives kept going. But for Team RBY, things just weren't the same anymore. There was a numbness to their actions as they just kept going through the motions. Weiss was dead, and it left a cold hollow in their hearts.

* * *

**Author's Note**

**STILL NOT SORRY. If it's any consolation, nobody else is getting as drawn out a death. Gonna go for quick and dark rather than long and sad. **

**The song Ruby was singing to Weiss is from the episode 3 ending by the way, **

**No idea when the Blake chapter is going to be done. I originally had a lot less ideas for Blake's chapter (and Yang's) than Ruby and Weiss. I have thought of a few things recently though, and Adam is probably gonna make an appearance.**

**Both Blake and Yang's chapters will definitely be shorter than this chapter. The way Weiss died just lent itself more towards a longer chapter than any of the others will. Man, I really put myself in a corner with this chapter, I don't think I can top it. That doesn't mean I'm not going to try though, you can bet your ass it's just going to get darker from here.**

**I'm probably going to be doing a chapter of Red and White next since I've killed both Ruby and Weiss since the last time I updated that. Not gonna be for a while though, a little burned out from this chapter right now.**

**Please read and review. Stay tuned for the next chapter when I kill Blake, and this time when I say kill, unlike with Weiss where it was with sickness, I mean it a bit more literally this time. I've kinda been planning Blake's murder.**


	3. Now in Darkness

**Author's Note**

**Been a while, but here's chapter 3! I'm sure some of you have been eagerly anticipating this, while others probably wish I had taken longer. The chapter kind of got away from me, I intended it for be about half the length it ended up being.**

**This chapter is a bit different from the others. It'll still be sad, but not quite the same way as the previous chapters. It's more of a generally dark and depressing chapter meant to ruin your day rather than a waterworks facility. Lemme know how that goes.**

**Some of you expressed concern about Weiss dying slowly and painfully last chapter. If it makes you feel better, she was on so many meds that she probably didn't feel much of it at all. It's why she was so out of it when speaking with Ruby.**

**Others were saddened by her dying alone in the end. But really, she wasn't conscious at the time anyway, so it wouldn't have made a difference to her whether someone was there or not. I'm sure her teammates would have liked to be there for Weiss in her final moments, but it wouldn't have changed anything for her, and all it really would have done is hurt them more actually seeing her die. What's important is that they were there for her through that whole time leading up to it. I'm sure she felt loved before she died.**

**Anyways, for those of you who were concerned about Weiss being in pain, or dying without anyone who cared for her nearby, um. Well. Have fun with this chapter.**

**WARNING: Slight gore, nothing too bad. Somebody is carrying around a severed hand. No it is not Blake's, that might be a little mean even for me. The chapter gets a little dark though, I thought that was more fitting for Blake.**

**EDIT(26/10/13): Fixed grammatical mistakes and typos and stuff plus small touch ups. I should really proofread more...**

* * *

This particular morning Team RWBY was in a bit of a panic. Their alarm had failed to go off, causing the entire team to wake up late, and they were now rushing to get ready for classes. Only Ruby and Weiss were currently in the room, with Yang in the bathroom attempting to tame a rather bad hair day.

"Hey, where's Blake?" Ruby asked glancing at the empty bed beside her.

"She probably got up early again and is already on her way to class. Like we should be," Weiss said a little irritatedly as she hurriedly piled together books and papers.

Ruby nodded slowly at Weiss's words, but did not turn away from the bed, still staring at it somewhat contemplatively. "But," she started off slowly chewing her lip. "She wasn't here last night when we went to sleep." And they had not exactly gone to sleep early either, which would have left a small window of time for Blake to have returned and slept. Her eyes still on Blake's bed Ruby continued, "I don't think she came home at all last night."

Hearing this actually gave Weiss pause for a moment as she stopped in the middle of reaching for a textbook. Turning her head she looked at the bed next to hers in the room. It was true. The sheets were made and completely undisturbed. While that in itself might not have meant much given Blake's penchant for neatness, her book bag next to it was in the exact same position at the foot of her bed it was left at last night before Blake had gone out for a walk.

It was not unusual for Blake to wander off on her own at odd times throughout the day (or the night). It also was not unusual for her to return after the rest of the team had already gone to sleep, or for her to leave early before they had awoken. That was just how Blake was, independent, and somewhat mysterious. However, in all the time they had been together as a team, despite how Blake would come and go as she pleased, there was one constant they had come to notice. No matter what, she would always return every night to their dorm. That she had apparently not done so last night was unsettling.

"I..." Weiss paused upon hearing the hesitancy and took a moment to recompose herself. "I'm sure she must have her reasons. Blake can take herself. She'll be fine."

Ruby had opened her mouth to say something in return, but before she could utter a word the door to the bathroom slammed open as Yang rushed back out.

Cursing under her breath the golden haired girl quickly threw a pile of books messily into her bag before slinging it over her shoulder. "We're late! Hurry up, we have to get going!" With these parting words Yang then proceeded to bolt out the door into the hallway in a run, barely managing to skid into a turn before slamming into Team JNPR's door across the hall.

Broken out of their previous discussion Ruby and Weiss looked at each other for a second before turning back to quickly packing their own school supplies. Blake was always the dependable sort. She'd show up again in her own time. For now though, they really had to get to class.

* * *

Blake did not show up to any of their classes that day. When Team RWBY returned to their dorm room after classes it was to find everything as they left it. She had evidently not come back to the room during classes either. They spent some time searching her usual haunts to no avail before retiring back to the room for the night to study and do some homework. Upon returning, Weiss suggested that they attempt to message Blake through her scroll, but they received no answer.

As it was the start of the weekend tomorrow, the team stayed up late getting ahead on their work, as well as to hopefully catch Blake's return. However, even as the clock went past midnight there was no sign of their wayward teammate, and they rather uneasily settled into sleep.

It was at eight in the morning, long before the team had intended on getting up that they were rudely awoken. An insistent ringing came from Ruby's electronic scroll from its place atop the small bookshelf between the beds signifying an urgent message. Blearily opening her eyes Ruby turned her head and reached towards the side to grab the device which Weiss was passing up to her from below. She couldn't see the heiress's face right now, but she was certain that the other girl was supremely displeased to have her sleep interrupted by a message for Ruby.

"What does it say Ruby?" asked Yang with her voice muffled from the pillow she had covered her face with in an attempt to drown out the noise.

Rubbing her eyes Ruby brought the scroll's display closer to her eyes as she scanned the contents of the message. "It's from Professor Ozpin," she yawned. "He says we're not in trouble, but he wants us in his office as soon as possible."

She heard an audible groan come from the bed below hers as Weiss was forced to return to wakefulness. After giving Ruby the scroll to deal with she had attempted to go back to sleep, but the message had dashed those hopes. The grumbling from the other side of the room indicated a similar displeasure from Yang.

A thought occurred to Ruby. "Blake, are you there?" she called out.

No response.

Another moment passed as Ruby waited for Blake to say something, but still nothing. Rolling over to the edge of the bed she poked her head over the side. From the corner of her eyes she could see a head of white hair doing the same thing, and across from her she saw a mane of yellow hair hanging down showing that Yang also had the same idea. Blake's bed was still empty and undisturbed.

Ruby met Yang's eyes from across the room. Her sister was clearly worried about the missing state of her partner now. She was certain that a similar expression was mirrored upon her own face. It wasn't like Blake to have completely disappeared on them without a word.

Professor Ozpin had asked for Team RWBY. But Blake wasn't here. Still, there was nothing they could do about that for now. They would have to go see what the headmaster wanted first before they went looking for their friend.

It took about twenty minutes for them to shake off the dregs of sleep as well as properly wash up and change. Finally looking presentable the three present members of Team RWBY headed out. Another five minutes later found them standing in the headmaster's office across from Professor Ozpin who was seated by behind his desk.

Silence filled the room as Ozpin stared at the girls with his face half hidden behind steepled fingers. None of them said anything as they had grown rather used to some of his eccentricities by now. He would speak up when he wanted to.

"I see Miss Belladonna is not here," said Ozpin calmly after several minutes of silence. It was not a question. "When I asked the other professors, none of them had seen her in class either. Mayhaps one of you knows where she is?"

The three of them looked at each other with a developing expression of worry on their faces. If Professor Ozpin had been asking around about Blake specifically then that implied that her

missing status was more dire than they thought, and that perhaps he knew something they did not.

As leader of the team, Ruby naturally took the role of spokesperson for the group. "No, we don't know where Blake is. The last time we actually saw her was two nights ago." Ruby hesitated for a moment before proceeding with the question on the tip of her tongue. "Do you know something about where Blake is sir?"

Ozpin continued to look at her, his expression growing unusually grim, making it really hard for Ruby not to begin shifting nervously. Silently he reached underneath his desk for something, not taking his gaze off of the red cloaked girl for an instant. Bringing it up he placed the item onto the desk with a small sound, but several pairs of eyes had already begun to widen before it even touched the surface. A small gasp was audible in the room.

"That's Gambol Shroud!" cried out Ruby in surprise. "Blake wouldn't just leave her weapon behind. Why is it with you professor?"

"This weapon," he started slowly, "Was found yesterday on the ground near the opening of an alleyway in the market district. It was recognized as the weapon of a hunter, and as such was turned over to Beacon this morning."

"There's no way the Blake could have simply lost her weapon," Yang spoke up with her fists clenched and voice tight. "Something must have happened to her."

Ozpin's eyes shifted from the younger sister to the elder. "Of course we investigated the matter immediately. I would not believe any of my students to be so careless as to misplace something so important as their chosen weapon." Pulling out his own scroll, the professor pressed a few buttons and gestured to the screen on the wall across from him behind the girls. "This footage dated from two night ago was taken from a recently installed security camera from a store near the area the weapon was found."

At his gesture the girls turned around to see the screen with a sinking feeling already in their stomachs. The video started to show a rather grainy black and white picture looking out a store window into a dimly lit and empty street. A few moments later, a figure entered the picture from the side walking along the street. It was Blake.

Ruby squinted her eyes at the screen. She was pretty sure it was Blake anyway, the video quality was not the greatest. It looked like Gambol Shroud on the figure's back, and Blake's distinctive bow atop her head. Abruptly though, the image of her teammate suddenly began to move, ripping her blade off her back and shifting herself into a combat stance.

Or attempted to anyway.

Ruby felt herself draw in a breath as another shadowy figure entered the screen, charging right at Blake with impressive speed, weapon already drawn. She couldn't quite make out what the weapon was. It was perhaps a mace or a hammer of some sort, but rather quite a bit smaller than those wielded by Nora or Cardin. The attacker was dressed all in black, and with how bad the camera was, any distinct features were impossible to make out.

Blake just barely managed to bring up Gambol Shroud in time to deflect the first blow, bracing herself onto her back leg against the unexpectedly strong force. It was a clumsy defence though, she had evidently not been prepared for an attack by someone so skilled in the middle of town.

The assailant's weapon swung back in for a second strike surprisingly fast. They could all see that Blake's blade was out of position and she was off balance, this would not go well. Yang's expression was stormy, Ozpin frowned darkly, and Weiss was biting her lip. Ruby was sure she must have had a similarly worried look as she saw Gambol Shroud ripped out of Blake's hand by the blow in her attempt to block, sending it through the air and skidding across the ground into a nearby alley.

Blake wasn't quite beaten yet though. Leaping backwards she put some distance between her and the enemy, landing into an unarmed stance. Unexpectedly though, she whirled around as a _second _assailant similar in appearance to the first enter the scene. Just barely she fended off a blow aimed at her head. This new guy was fast, he had appeared almost in an instant with no warning at all.

Unfortunately the abilities of this second attacker did not end up mattering much, only his appearance on the scene. Caught off guard yet again in such a short time frame Blake had let her attention slip from her first opponent for a second. A second too long. He had already crossed the distance in that time, and delivered a mighty swing of his weapon directly to the back of Blake's head, sending her now limp body crashing into the ground like a ragdoll. From start to finish it had barely taken ten seconds.

A heavy silence hung in the room as they watched the two men pick up Blake's body and take her away. For most people, such a blow would have been lethal for sure. As a huntress with her aura unlocked, it probably would have defended her enough to save her life, even if it didn't stop the blunt force trauma from knocking her out. The video ended, the screen going blank, but still no one said a word. Ruby felt her throat tighten up as she blinked back the tears. This was bad, this was really bad.

It was of course Yang who would break the silence. "Who are they? Where is she?" she demanded angrily. Her eyes flickered red as Yang quite literally shook with rage.

"Unfortunately Miss Xiao Long, that is information that we do not have," Ozpin sighed wearily closing his eyes. "Authorities have been notified and an official investigation launched, but there is very little to go on at the moment. The scene of the crime was investigated, but no evidence was found. There were no other cameras in the area watching the appropriate location. At this point in time, there is nothing else we know other than what I have already shown you."

Snarling Yang turned around on her heels. Angrily she ripped open the door, issuing a room shaking punch to the door frame as she left. Both Ruby and Weiss winced at the poor decorum she showed, and at the rattling of various objects around the room. Though perhaps it was best she left, since it had appeared that she was liable to burst into flames at any moment.

"We're sorry about Yang, Headmaster Ozpin," Weiss said apologetically, bowing slightly. "She's just worried about Blake."

"No need to explain Miss Schnee," said Ozpin holding up a hand to stall any further apologies. "I understand just fine. It is only natural to show concern at times such as this when a friend and teammate are in trouble. No damage was done. Miss Xiao Long is hardly the first temperamental hunter I have had to deliver bad news to within this office."

"If anything, it is I who should be apologizing to you," continued Ozpin. "I am sorry that I am unable to do anything but be a bearer of bad news at this time." Taking off his glasses he lowered his head into his hands, pinching the bridge of his nose. "It is always hard for us professors to see such tragedy befall a model student such as Miss Belladonna, and I am sure it must be even harder for yourselves as her friends and teammates."

"You don't need need to apologize to us professor," said Ruby shifting uncomfortably. "It's not like it's your fault, and I'm sure you're doing your best to help." She didn't particularly like the way he worded things. It sounded so grim, so final. They would find Blake, Ruby was sure of it. She couldn't bare to consider the other possibilities.

A faint hum of acknowledgement came from the headmaster. "Well then Miss Rose. I have nothing further to say. So unless you have something you wish to add, you and Miss Schnee are dismissed."

Ruby turned to look at Weiss for a moment, finding her blue eyes looking back. Something had been nagging the back of her mind for a while now, something which Weiss had evidently thought of as well. The other members of Team RWBY had had brushes with Blake's past previously, and from what they knew, it would not have been surprising if she had a few enemies. Unfortunately, they didn't know enough to say just who those enemies could be. Nothing that would likely be useful for an investigation, but probably enough to get Blake herself into trouble with the law.

"No professor, there's nothing else we want to say. We should probably go catch up to Yang now."

With his head down Ozpin had not noticed the short look the two of them had shared. Nodding absently he waved the two of them out the door.

* * *

Weiss snarled as she threw the handful papers back onto the desk. Worthless. Utterly worthless. The authorities were conducting their own official investigation into the case, but Team RWBY could hardly just stand by and do nothing as Blake was in trouble. As such, they had started looking into things themselves.

She had been using a number of private investigators both on and off the Schnee payroll to look into Blake's past. It was a wonder how far a little money and the Schnee name would get you if you looked in the right places. Weiss had previously refrained from digging around in her mysterious teammate's past both to respect her privacy, as well as because she had no real reason to before. But now, with Blake taken and missing, perhaps one of those shadowy affiliations alluded to in her past may be able to point them in the right direction. Her teammate's privacy would just have to come second to her safety.

It had been two days since the meeting with Professor Ozpin, and since Blake had yet to return under her own power, they probably should not expect her to without aid. The reports had started coming in from the investigators, but they were frustratingly useless thus far.

Transcripts, medical records, various certificates and pieces of identification, they were all there. But that was it. While Blake had all the important records one would expect, there were inconsistencies when one looked deeper. A lot of information was spotty and bare, with a lot of blanks in between. It was only after she had enrolled into Beacon that things started to become more solid, but that wasn't the time period Weiss was interested in. Follow ups by the investigators in person revealed that nobody in the places she had supposedly been actually knew her.

It was like Blake Belladonna was a ghost that had simply been inserted into the system one day.

A scowl set itself onto her face as Weiss lowered her head into her hands. She understood what this could mean, and had speculated on the possibilities before. Option A was simply that during Blake's criminal years she had refrained from most normal interactions with society, leaving only trace records. Option B was that she had struck a deal with someone, and anything related to her old activities had been expunged, and other records were forged to get her into Beacon. Option C was that "Blake Belladonna" was a pseudonym created along with all the records to hide her original identity, likely done with the assistance of some benefactor in a manner similar to the previous option. Regardless of which of the three it was, or something else entirely altogether, it made tracking her down near impossible.

There were no apparent ties that Blake had to anybody she could follow up on. She had known that Blake did not have any family. That was no great secret, though the why had never been said. Blake disliked talking about her past, and never mentioned any friends. Weiss could see why, once or twice they had come across somebody from her past and it had never been pleasant. For all intents and purposes, Team RWBY was everything Blake had. No matter what may have happened in Blake's past, if it couldn't be used to find her right now then it wasn't important. She was a member of Team RWBY now. The members of Team RWBY were friends, practically a family in all but blood. And Weiss refused to simply roll over and allow anybody to get away with hurting her family.

Ringing suddenly filled the otherwise silent room. A call was incoming from one of the investigators she had hired. A quick couple button presses later had the call directed to an earpiece Weiss had gotten so that she could return her hands and attention to some of the papers scattered around the desk.

"Yes?" asked the still frowning white haired girl. "What do you have for me?"

Weiss shuffled the papers around on the desk as she looked for a specific report. She nodded to herself absently as she listened to the man's report even though he couldn't see her. It was not until the end that something caught her attention. "Oh, is that right? No, there is no need for you to follow up on that. I have someone else in mind. You just keep doing what you are already doing."

A minute later found Weiss making a call to someone else herself. "Yang? Where are you right now?" A pause. "That's good, I need you to go to..."

* * *

While Weiss had been hitting the paper trails, Yang had taken to the streets instead. She'd had a little experience with asking around and tracking people or information down before. Weiss would sometimes give her a lead to follow up on in person, and sometimes Yang would find something for the heiress to look into behind closed doors. Ruby had tried her best to lend her help to the both of them, but in truth her little sister was a bit out of her element.

At this point, it had been five days since Ozpin showed them the video. Blake had been missing for a week. Each time one of them thought they might have had something, it turned out to just be a dead end once again. Still though, they had to follow up on every potential lead they had.

"...I've just arrived Weiss," said Yang as she got off her motorcycle. "I'll see you later back at Beacon. Bye." Hanging up the call she stepped forward into the building.

The music was beating and the lights pulsing as was the norm for this establishment. The golden haired beauty drew some attention of the male variety from some of the people on the dance floor, but for the most part the majority of the patrons payed her little mind. The employees on the other hand were a different matter. The numerous guards and bouncers immediately locked their sights onto her, hands straying towards their weapons. None dared to get in her way however.

"Oh not you again!" groused a man escorted by several of the hired muscle. Obviously he was the one in charge around here. "I thought I had seen the last of you already. Go away, you're not welcome here."

"Ah Junior! Just the man I wanted to see!" greeted Yang. "Now, is that any way to welcome a lady like me? I just came for some information." Her voice was warm and friendly, but there was a threatening undercurrent that promised pain for those that knew to look for it.

"That's what you came for last time, and most of the place ended up getting trashed," Junior grumbled. He didn't move to make any attempt at getting rid of her or refuse to answer though. He knew better than that.

"Disappointing I know. I'm sure I could do better this time though! A couple years at Beacon has only made me better at breaking things!" Yang managed to make even her threats sound cheery. Much to her team's chagrin, she had picked up a few less than desirable traits from Nora over the years. "Now, have you seen her before?" she asked bringing up a picture of Blake on her scroll.

Junior looked at the picture for a moment but shook his head. "I didn't know the last girl in black you asked about, and I don't know this one either."

"Oh?" murmured Yang narrowing her eyes dangerously. She flicked over to a couple of blurry zoomed in pictures of the two assailants from the video and shoved it into Junior's face as she stepped in closer to him. "How about these two?"

Junior could feel himself sweating from how closely Yang was pressed up against him as he nearly went cross eyed looking at the pictures shoved into his face. Normally he wouldn't mind having a blonde bombshell like this against him, but he still remembered what happened last time. "Those are not the greatest pictures," he noted nervously. "But I don't recognize 'em."

Yang didn't say a word, but she didn't move away from Junior either. His eyes widened in panic as he felt her hand brush by his thigh and his brain went into overdrive. "Wait! Wait! Uh, a couple of weeks ago, two guys came by, not sure if they were your guys though. They were asking after some girl too, it might have been yours. It was an older picture, she looked different, a lot younger." Junior spoke as fast as he could, trying to tell Yang as much as she knew before she decided to crush his manhood again like before. "I don't know her now, and I didn't know her then. I didn't tell them anything, and I never saw 'em again after they left, nor had I seen them ever before that. I'm sorry, but I can't help you find them."

Scrutinizing Junior who at this point was practically sweating bullets, Yang attempted to determine the veracity of his words. Eventually though she decided he was telling the truth and stepped away from him with a scowl. Turning away from the man she walked back towards the exit feeling a number of eyes still watching her warily.

* * *

A short trip on her bike later had Yang back at Beacon. Shutting off the engine she tried not to feel too disheartened, but Yang could feel the beginnings of despair gnawing at her on the edges. Another dead end. One of many. It was already sunset, and though that alone would not have stopped her from continuing to search, they were also out of leads to investigate for the day.

Blake was still missing, and they were no closer to finding her than they were before. The men who had taken her were not friendly, that much was obvious. And she had been in their clutches for a full week now. Who knows what they had done to her, or what they wanted? Yang was worried, extremely so, and it was getting harder not to start imagining worst case scenarios.

Seeing Ruby and Weiss in the otherwise deserted courtyard Yang gave a halfhearted wave as she walked towards them. Hearing her approach the two of them turned and waved back as Ruby started running towards her with her more reserved partner trailing along at a slower pace.

"Yang!" Ruby called out as she pulled up to a stop in front of her. "Did you have any luck?" she asked looking up at her hopefully. Yang simply shook her head wordlessly. "Oh..." said Ruby quietly as she instantly deflated in disappointment.

As Weiss walked up to them Yang opened her mouth in preparation to give them a brief rundown on what had happened. Before she had a chance to say anything however, another voice cut through the air.

"I heard you were looking for Blake."

As one, the three girls whirled around towards the source of the voice. It was not a voice they were overly familiar with, but it was not one they hadn't ever heard before either. Approaching them was a tall man dresses in black. The most striking parts of his appearance though were his red hair and bone white mask covering his eyes. Although they had not met him many times before, he was a very easy person to remember and recognize. The three of them all tensed up at his approach.

"Adam," Yang growled. "What are you doing here? How did you even get on to Beacon grounds?"

Stopping a few meters away from them Adam stood regarding them coolly, unconcerned even as their hands twitched towards their weapons. When they had encountered one another in the past, it had not been on good terms. This was one grudge that Yang had ended up holding on to.

"As I said before. Blake." he replied evenly. If anything, his calm demeanour only served to irritate Yang further. "I got word that you were looking for her. And so I came."

Eyes widening Yang surged forward and grabbed him by the collar. "It was you wasn't it!?" she shouted into his face. "You took her!" Yang didn't really have any good reason to suspect him. This was mostly the result of a week of frustration finally boiling over, and as she had never liked Adam, Yang finally had a convenient target for her rage.

Adam made no attempt to try and remove him from her person. Merely looking at her silently from behind his mask. She really hated that mask, it made it so hard to read his expression, and right now she just really wanted him to give her a reason to punch him in his smug face.

"What reason would I have to do that?" asked Adam rhetorically. "Besides, in the event that I did, why would I come here in person to tell you? No, I didn't take her." His next words stopped everyone cold. "I merely came to inform you that Blake is dead."

Yang who had been rearing up a fist froze instantly. Ruby and Weiss stopped dead in their tracks right behind her, having come closer to restrain her from doing something violent if necessary.

Blake is dead. _Blake is dead_. The words reverberated throughout their heads, but they just refused to make sense. Even as the three of them stood stunned, still as statues while their minds raced as they tried wrap their minds around Adam's words. Now given the opportunity, Adam calmly removed Yang's limp fingers from his collar. Smoothing out the wrinkles he stepped back and waited for them to get over the shock of what he had just revealed.

Logically, there was no reason for it to be a lie. Clearly Adam knew something more than they did about the situation, he was far too sure in his words. He didn't seem to want anything from them, if Blake were alive she might have served as a bargaining chip, but he was telling them the opposite. If Adam was involved in her capture and she was still alive now, there was no reason to reveal himself, he had to have known they would be sceptical. It would be better letting them run around chasing dead ends. If she was really dead and informing them was meant to hurt them, there was still no reason to come in person. There were plenty of others way it could have been while providing sufficient proof.

No. Logically there was no reason for Adam to be lying about Blake being dead. Nor did it seem that he was involved with the people that attacked her. But even if within the mind it all adds up, the heart has no such metrics or form of measure. This was made clear as Yang soon made another lunge for him, barely restrained in time by her teammates grabbing her by the shoulders.

"THAT'S A LIE!" she screamed at him. "There's no way Blake is dead! That's impossible!" Her struggles against the hold Ruby and Weiss had on her only increased as she attempted to get to Adam to punish him for what was, in her mind, a vicious lie.

"Again. I have nothing to gain from coming here to tell such a lie," said Adam as he reached into his coat pocket. "No, it is simply the harsh truth. Blake. Is. Dead." turning over his clenched palm he allowed the object he retrieved from his pocket to fall. A strip of black material unfurled from his open hand, slowly depositing into a pile upon the ground.

Yang's struggles ceased as her eyes followed the falling material downward towards the ground. As she grew still, the others slowly released her arms. Sinking towards the ground silently she reached for the thing Adam had dropped.

It was a ribbon. A silk black ribbon. The one that Blake used to tie the bow in her hair every day. There was no way that Yang wouldn't be able to recognize it.

It was undeniably the same ribbon, she was sure of it. But there was something different. Parts of it were stiff, and crusty, a slight off colouring was present on these locations as well.

Cupping it into her hands Yang brought it closer to her face. It was faint, but it was there. The smell of blood. Blood dried into Blake's ribbon. Blake's blood. Blake was never without her bow. The implications were clear.

Instantly Yang's breathing became shaky as her body became unable to decide whether to stop breathing in shock, or begin hyperventilating instead. Her eyes began to sting as the golden haired girl began to curl in on herself around the ribbon, her body shaking and shuddering. Alarmed at the sudden change in Yang's behaviour, Ruby and Weiss knelt down next to her to get a better look at what it was that caused her to change her opinion on what Adam has said.

Adam stood forgotten to the side as the remaining members of Team RWBY started breaking down upon seeing the bow, with the reality of the situation finally setting in. As their tears began to spill, he started talking, this time without having to worry so much about being violently interrupted.

"You know some of what she did in the past. Blake and I," Adam started out. "You also know that she chose to leave."

"Yes," Weiss bit out amidst the tears. Yang was still practically catatonic, and Ruby wasn't much better trying to comfort her. "You planned to kill an entire train full of innocent workers simply because they worked for the Schnee company. She waited until you were tired from fighting so you couldn't stop her from separating the train cars."

"Couldn't stop her?" Adam scoffed. "It hardly took that much out of me to take that machine down. No. I let her go. Others however, were not so forgiving."

"What do you mean?"

"The two men that took Blake," he said. That statement immediately drew Weiss's attention as well as Ruby's. Even Yang managed to draw her face shakily up to look at him. "They were members of the same organization we were a part of."

"Were?" Weiss immediately latched onto the keyword used twice in Adam's last statement. It made sense to use the past tense with reference to Blake, but what about himself and the two other men? Adam however continued along without acknowledging her.

"The two of them never liked Blake much. The feeling was mutual," said Adam. "But so long as she was still with us, they didn't dare to attack one of the organization's own members." But then Blake left. It was obvious where he was going with this.

"Those two. They took her." Weiss wasn't asking a question. Merely restating out loud the answer Adam had already implied. "They killed her."

This time he nodded. "When I heard word that the three of you were looking for Blake, I realized she was missing. They had also conveniently fallen off the map around the same time. And then I saw the video. There is no mistake, it was them."

"Where are they?" croaked out Yang finally finding her voice again. Her eyes were still red with tears, but they now also flashed red with something else. Her expression could perhaps be described as murderous. For the ones who had taken Blake from her, she would teach them the meaning of pain. Adam's next actions however took the wind out of her sails once more.

Reaching into a different pocket he procured something once more. "Dead," he said simply as he let the next item drop with a small thud on the ground. It was a slightly bloody human hand within a plastic baggy. "I killed them." That statement was said with perhaps the most emotion he had shown thus far with the faintest hints of satisfaction. Team RWBY however did not notice, as they were far more preoccupied by the severed hand.

Weiss immediately turned pale, even more so than usual, as she forced herself to look away. She had thought for a moment that perhaps Adam was not quite as bad as they had previously thought. But no, even if he apparently had cared for Blake, the man was still clearly rather unhinged and killed far too freely.

Yang simply deflated. The brief thought of vengeance had taken her mind off of actually dealing with the thought of Blake's death, but even that had been taken away just as quickly as it had come to her.

Surprisingly, Ruby seemed to deal with it the best. She looked none too pleased about it of course, grimacing at the sight, but managed to refrain from recoiling like Weiss had. Rising off the ground to face Adam she fixed him with a glare and a frown. There was no need to say the question aloud. It did not take a genius to figure out what what the look was about.

"It was the biggest piece of them left afterwards I could find," explained Adam. "I've been thinking of having it framed."

Ruby winced at that. She was fairly sure that the first part was true, but could not actually tell if he was joking or not about framing the hand. Adam had no qualms about ending lives, that was one point that had been made abundantly obvious between their previous encounters and what little Blake had shared about him. Never before though had anything hinted at this level of sheer bloodthirstiness though. He tended towards cold-blooded efficiency when he killed rather than completely unnecessary brutality. If he had actually done what he did to avenge Blake, if he had come here to tell them what had happened just because they were Blake's friends, if he really did care, then there was something that she could think of that could perhaps have caused this.

Swallowing nervously, Ruby asked Adam, "How did Blake die?" It wasn't that she necessarily wanted to know. But it was something that she, that they, all needed to know regardless.

Any levity to be found in Adam, no matter how dark it may have been, disappeared instantly as he returned to a grim seriousness. "You don't want to know," he said flatly, turning away from her. As Ruby was about to protest though, he continued speaking. "As I said, they never liked Blake, but were unable to move against her. But this time, things had changed." Whirling around once again Ruby suddenly found Adam right up against her face. "They wanted to make her _suffer_," he hissed. "And they did. Oh how they did."

The cold grip around Ruby's heart reasserted itself as her stomach clenched. "Suffer...?" she whispered out, inaudible to any but herself.

"By the time I found them, by the time I got to her, they had already done far too much. She was too far gone." Ruby thinks that perhaps this is the most human she has ever seen Adam. There was only the slightest tinge of sorrow and regret in his voice, but for him, that spoke volumes.

"You couldn't have done anything? Helped her, or gotten her a doctor?" asked Ruby. Belatedly she realized that she was crying again, and her words were barely distinguishable amidst the tears.

"I did what I could. But she was too far gone," restated Adam. "Even if Blake did manage to survive, I fear that with what had been done to her, it would not have been a life she would have wanted to live."

"...And her body?" The words were faint. As much as she dreaded the thought of seeing the corpse of her friend, it was another unfortunately necessary question. There would have to be a funeral, and a burial. Even if Blake was dead, she wanted to be able to see her one last time if nothing else.

"I cremated her, and spread the ashes," answered Adam. Before Ruby was able to protest that Blake should have been returned to them he continued, "I guarantee you would not have wanted to see what she looked like in the end. It is best you simply remember her as she was."

Ruby's fists clenched as her body shook. She had no words with which to respond to that. Ruby could taste the blood from where she was biting into her lip. What must have happened to Blake was something that hurt her to think about, but she couldn't keep from imagining the horrors she must have gone through anyway. Ruby didn't think she had ever truly hated somebody before, but if Adam hadn't already killed them she was sure that there would be blood on Crescent Rose instead.

Dimly Ruby hears a heartbreaking wail as Yang finally began to cry audibly, her tears no longer silent. Turning away from Adam she knelt back down next to her sister, pulling Yang into an embrace much to the relief of Weiss who couldn't quite manage to provide any comfort to Yang amidst her own distress. Faintly Ruby realized that this was the first time she had actually seen or heard Yang truly cry. Having said what he had come here to say Adam began walking away.

A few steps away though he halted in his steps. "Before she passed, there was a message Blake wanted me to give to you three," he said. Adam paused only the briefest of moments, reflecting on the final words of his former partner that he alone had heard. "She said, 'Thank you. And goodbye.' "

By the time any of them managed to look up, Adam was already gone.

* * *

Even after Adam had left that night, they did not move from the courtyard for a very long time. It had been late enough that there were not any students that would come by that area. Nobody to see them crying and broken over the news of Blake's death.

Night had already fallen by the time someone happened upon them. Curiously, it seemed that Jaune and Pyrrha were out rather late that night and had come across them still huddled. Though they had long since run out of tears by that point the red eyes and dried tracks across their faces were still obvious indicators of what had happened.

It took a while, but eventually the two of them managed to get the story of everything that happened out of the girls. Jaune was sent to go find Professor Ozpin and tell him the bad news. Pyrrha meanwhile escorted the three shell shocked girls back to their dorm. Of the five of them, none managed to sleep well that night.

The night passed, and morning came, but the nightmare they were confronted with refused to go away. None of the members of Team RWBY much felt like doing anything that day, not even leaving their room. If it weren't for their friends, Team JNPR, they probably would not have even eaten. Professor Ozpin had come by in the afternoon to offer his condolences and get their account of the encounter with Adam and assured them that he would take care of things. True enough to his words, no authorities ever came to personally question them, meaning that was one less thing to distract them from their mourning.

They didn't go to class that day. In the grand scheme of things, it just didn't seem very important. The weekend came and went, and people saw nary hide nor hair of them all through the next week. Eventually though, they had to begin attending again lest they risk failing. The professors had been rather understanding about their long string of absences during their search and subsequent mourning, but that didn't mean they wouldn't have to learn what had been taught during that time anyway.

Everything that they did now though, simply felt like going through the motions. Blake had rarely taken to the spotlight, preferring to remain in the background, but she had always been there nonetheless. How ironic that the disappearance of the one who had preferred to remain in shadows would make their world feel so dim.

Weiss felt worthless. So very worthless. She and Blake had often disagreed on some key issues, but they had been friends. Friends, Weiss did not have many of those, and treasured the few she did. With all that they had been through, they had undoubtedly saved each other's lives an innumerable number of times. This time though, she had failed.

The failure hit Ruby even harder than it had Weiss. She was supposed to be the leader of their team, it was her job to look out for its members. More than that, Blake was her friend as well, somebody important to her. Ruby had sworn to never again let somebody she cared about die under her watch. And she had failed.

Yang was utterly and completely devastated. She had hardly spoken a word since that night. Even her crying had ceased. There was a dead look in her eye, lost and forlorn. She truly was mechanical in the way she did things such as going to class and doing her work, even more basic things such as eating or sleeping. Yang wouldn't do any of it at all on her own without prompt, but did not resist or protest when one did so. The only thing that she seemed to care about was the ribbon.

In fact her fixation was such that it genuinely worried the others as it was almost an unhealthy obsession. It was always in her grasp, never out of her sight. She refused to even wash it, simply gripping tightly onto the blood encrusted material. The only signs of life she had shown so far were when somebody tried to take it from her, and then she would get almost violently defensive.

The thing was, Yang wasn't used to losing people. Part of the reason why Ruby and Weiss were hit so hard was because they were. But that also meant they knew how to deal with it on some level. Yang didn't have that, it just hurt and she didn't know what to do. It felt like her whole world was crashing down around her. Blake had been her partner and her best friend, hey had always been there for each other ever since that day in the Emerald Forest. But not this time. She had failed her.

They had all failed.

* * *

There was no body to bury, and consequently no grave.

There had been no real funeral either. Blake had no family, and had been content to stay out of the spotlight resulting in few friends as well. Her team had been the closest people to her in life. With Team RWBY too grief stricken to make any arrangements for a proper funeral, none of Blake's other friends such as the members of Team JNPR nor the professors felt comfortable doing it in their absence.

What there was, was a memorial. Not quite a tombstone, it wasn't a grave after all. Perhaps something more along the lines of a shrine. It was something that the headmaster had put into place in a secluded corner of Beacon Blake had once favoured.

Still gloomy and listless, Ruby, Weiss, and Yang managed to be there at its unveiling nonetheless. Others were there: Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora, Ren, and Velvet among with a few other people. Teachers and other students who had heard the news also stopped by to pay their condolences.

Nobody said anything. What was there to say? They simply stood and mourned in silence.

One by one people eventually left, leaving only Team RWBY behind, silent into the night.

They wanted to say something, they really did. They would have liked to say that Blake had lived a good life, but that wasn't quite true. Her life had been so short, so marred by the darkness of the world but for brief points of light.

Perhaps to say that it had simply been her time. But that wasn't true either. Blake's death had not been natural, had served no purpose, no reason at all. No one had seen it coming at all, she had simply been cruelly snatched away from them one day. Sometimes that was just how death was: painful, abrupt, and pointless, so very pointless. They never even got to say goodbye.

They could have spoken of the good times they had shared with Blake as her friends. But there was already enough of that running through their minds as it was. Every word, every action, every memory. It all simply ached within their minds and bodies. Verbalizing them would only have made things worse.

So they stood in silence. Quiet figures, statues standing vigil.

Life would go on, eventually. As much as it felt for these three that their world had just ended, to most of the rest of the world nothing had changed.

Blake Belladonna was not well known. She was not born into the eye of the world like some. Nor had she any great or terrible deeds of her own to her name. All those who would mourn or care were the few gathered here today. The world at large would simply go on without even noticing.

It is said that for many, they will make no greater impact upon the world than the ground disturbed to bury them, and in this case Blake did not have even that. What did she have to leave behind but memories? A legacy consisting only of what was left of her in the hearts and minds of her friends.

You can not ask anything of the dead. But if anybody had thought to ask Blake what she would have thought of such a thing being all she has to leave behind they would simply have received a smile. She had always known how little value her life lived in shadows and darkness was worth. To have lived a life where someone would care to remember her after she was gone would be all she could have asked for.

* * *

**Author's Note**

**Well that was different. Ruby and Weiss, the death was coming pretty clearly and obviously. Here, Blake gets taken, but they're looking for her and there's no major reason to jump right to the conclusion she's dead. They still have some hope. But then nope, suddenly in comes Adam with the bad news, that they are all too late. Sometimes shit just happens.**

**I don't have anything with which to assure you that Blake's death isn't as bad as it seems like I did with Weiss. I can assure you that she was beaten for sure, torture and mutilation is strongly implied, and the chance remains for something worse. What condition did Adam find her in? Was she too injured to be saved in time? Was she so messed up anyway that he had to mercy kill her? Did what they did fuck her up psychologically enough as well such that she no longer wanted to live? It was bad, let's just go with that, and I hope you have fun imagining it.**

**I said it to somebody in a reply to a review, but I'll say it here as well. It's not really important who exactly it was that killed Blake. In the same way that it wasn't important the specific disease Weiss died to, or what Ruby's heroic sacrifice entailed. Character reactions were more what I was focusing on. Plus there weren't any existing characters I wanted to have kill Blake.**

**Second time I've written Adam, and he didn't have a whole lot to say the first time I wrote him. He's an odd mix of aloof stoic, and bloodthirsty psychopath here. Adam does give off a bit of a mysterious aura in his manner of dress, and with that mask, not to mention the fact that he hasn't shown up once since the Black trailer. A willingness to kill noncombatants has also been shown, and it was also a little creepy when he was absorbing that laser/charging up for his attack or whatever. He's also more unhinged than normal here with what happened to Blake, he really did care, and he snapped. I'm not sure how sane he might have been to start with, but this didn't help.**

**Some people have been asking about Team JNPR. I don't think I'm going to do individual chapters for them. Ergh, it's been too much work so far just doing unique chapters for Team RWBY, I would never survive. It's not exactly gonna be a chapter dedicated to the whole team either. But if them being alive really bothers you guys so much, rest assured that nobody is making it out of this story alive.**

**Next chapter though is Yang's, alright? She gets to die next. Also murder. "On-screen" murder this time. Well, a battle death sort of, but still technically murder. It is not going to get dragged out like this chapter though, she should be dead within the first scene like Ruby was. Also, unlike Blake, it's actually going to be an actual character that kills her. I only hope I can make the rest of the chapter good enough for this story though, as I think I just keep raising the bar on myself.**


End file.
